Why You May Find It Difficult To Stop Your Divorce

You can stop an ongoing divorce, but the circumstances of the divorce will determine how easy it is. Here are some of the potential complications that you may have to deal with. For example, stopping your divorce may not be easy if:

You Did Not Initiate It

Normally, the person who can stop an ongoing divorce without a fuss is the person who filed for it in the first place. In such a case, you may not even have to consult your spouse. However, if your partner filed for the divorce, then you cannot be the one to initiate the halt. In such a case, you have to convince your partner to start the withdrawal proceedings.

Your Spouse Has Filed a Counter Claim

Even if you are the one who filed for the divorce, you may have a hard time withdrawing the suit if your spouse has already filed a counterclaim. A divorce counterclaim is a legal response to a divorce petition that contains the respondent's answers to the issues raised in the petition, as well as issues that the original petition failed to deal with. For example, if your partner asked for sole custody but did not talk about alimony, then you can respond to the custody issue and request for alimony.

Therefore, if you filed for divorce and your partner has raised some issues in their counterclaim, then you may need a hearing to determine whether those issues need to be addressed. An alternative would be to convince your partner to withdraw their counterclaim too, which would negate the need for a hearing.

There Are Safety Or Health Issues Involved

Lastly, you may also have a hard time stopping your divorce if your safety or the safety of your family is at state. For example, if you had mentioned in you divorce petition that your partner was abusing you or the kids, then you will not find it easy to withdraw the petition, and there are various reasons for this. For example, how is the court to tell that your abusive spouse isn't forcing you to withdraw the petition? It may even be that withdrawing the case and allowing you to continue with your life as before will put the kids in further danger. You have to answer those and similar issues before the court can agree to the withdrawal.

As you can see from the above issues, you can't just wake up one day and decide that you are canceling your divorce. Even if you hadn't retained a divorce lawyer (which is a bad decision), get one before trying to stop your divorce, especially if the case has progressed.

Contact a lawyer like Gomez May LLP for more information and assistance.